CAREER COMMITMENT HAS A POSITIVE

RELATIONSHIP WITH EMPLOYEES PERFORMANCE

Introduction:
Today we are living in the 21th century. All organizations are in
the competitive queue and victorious organizations always touch
the peak level of success in which employees performance
committed to the organizations objective and work as an effective
team member. The organization that provides career commitment
procedures and strategies to its employees, basically it wants an
output or better performance; actually these are requirements
and needs of that organization. As a result employee commitment
is arrived with greater responses. The aims of this study is to
determine how the employees performance influence their
commitment and the concepts will be explained with reference of
Meyer and Allen (Allen, 2007) There are three foci of commitment
organization, job and career commitment (Jones) The discussion
of literature focuses on the career commitment but are research
explored that are without a job and organizational related
moderator, the association between career commitment and
employee performance cannot give positive production.

Literature Review:
Career commitment obviously has an impact on the employees
performance. Various scholars in their scholarly works has time
and again emphasized on the definite relationship which exists
between employees job performance and organizational
commitment. We will now move on to see what commitment
exactly is and the recent researches that prove the statements
made.

Commitment
Commitment is a state of mind through which an individual
becomes bound to their actions and beliefs towards their
involvement to an object or activity. Commitment is so ordinary
that the constraining effects and subtle control it has on our
behaviour often goes without notice: Commitment is what makes
us like what we do and continue doing it, even when the payoffs
are not obvious (Jones) In most organizations, the working
environment is such that their affection is measured in terms of
their performance although this cannot be the case sometimes,
especially where the employee is putting in all the efforts but is
struggling to achieve his targets or perform well.
Career commitment can be considered one's attitude towards
one's profession or vocation, where career commitment involves
the development of personal career goals and an identification
with and involvement in those goals, such that one is willing to
exert effort in support of their career, congruent with its values
Commitment thought has now moved away from a uni
dimensional concept to what is now largely acknowledged as a
multidimensional view. This view was most avidly advocated by
Allen and Meyer (1990) in the early days, and is now widely
accepted (Allen and Meyer 1996). The multidimensional view
holds that the three types of commitment continuance, affective
and normative have different implications for behaviour. While
they all tend to bind a person to their organisation, their
relationships to behaviour can be quite different (John P. Meyer,
1997)

Career commitment in an organization:

Organisations endeavour to develop strong commitment from
their employees so that they can minimise turnover and

absences, and reduce recruitment and training costs Employee

turnover can be costly to all organisations. Committed employees
have been found more likely to stay in their chosen organisation,
and thus will reduce turnover statistics Committed employees are
also more likely to apply themselves to their job through
increased identification with organisational goals and values,
through the desire to maintain and conform with social forces and
because it may be too costly not to apply themselves. At times
however, commitment in employees can be undesirable.
Committed employees who do not perform may be difficult to
remove and may reduce unit effectiveness. Over-commitment can
also lead to high levels of zealousness which can result in
dysfunctional behaviour Another factor of career commitment id
employees physiological or emotional attatchment that is
responsible for the positive responses from organization through
loyalty,warmth,belongings,pleasure etc.
Summing it up we can say that career commitment supports the
goal of the organization. Though many theories,reviews,models
have been circulated to prove the statement,we will emphasize
on Meyer and Allen conceptualization model.
Organizational career commitment is largely planned and
strategic procedures under control of one wave and imply on
entire management. Behavioural characteristics are mainly
considered in the recital work done in the environment to
continue improvement in current job and job mobility
attentiveness.
Commitment relation to employee performance:

Some of the available relevant literature has been discussed

below to have an insight of the previous work done on the
subject. The study of employees job performance and
organizational commitment is of foremost importance to the top-

level management of the organizations. Somersl & Birnbaum

(1998) studied the relationship of career commitment to
performance effectiveness and resulted in a positive relationship.
Job satisfaction is not the single dependent variable of
commitment; it also has numerous other outcomes in the
organizations.
Jackofsky (1984), found out that low commitment is leading to
high rate of turnover, whereas higher the level of job satisfaction
through job security entails high level of organizational
commitment which further leads to improved employees job
performance (Yousuf, 1997).
Job performance has been defined as work performance in terms
of quantity and quality expected from each employee (business
dictionary).
(Shore,

Barksdale & Shore, 1995) studied 231 managers and 339

subordinates in multinational firms in United States and found
that affective commitment and job performance are positively
correlated.
(Suliman & Lles, 2002) explored the nature of organizational
commitment in three industrial units in Jordan by using
employees' job performance and five demographic variables.
Their research revealed that that organizational commitment
comprises three-dimensional concept. The findings also
uncovered a positive relationship between commitment (all the
three components) and job performance
(Rashid, Sambasvani & Joari, 2003) studied 202 managers in
Malaysian companies and their research findings suggested that
corporate culture and organizational commitment are interrelated
and both have far reaching impacts on the performance. The
above literatures review reveals that some definite positive
relationship exists between organizational commitment and
employees job performance.

Early researchers tended to concentrate on job satisfaction as the

key attitude related to employee performance. But the new
researches confidently said that career commitment is an
important attitudinal predictor of employee performance and
intentions. (Kumar A., Int J. Manag. Bus. Res., 2014)

THEORETICAL PERCEPTIONS ON CAREER COMMITMENT

AND PERFORMANCE:

Motivation theory:
Motivation is a theoretical construct used to explain behavior. It
represents the reasons for people's actions, desires, and needs.
Motivation can also be defined as one's direction to behavior or
what causes a person to want to repeat a behavior and vice
versa. ( Ellliot, Andrew J; Covington, Martin. "Approach and Avoidance
Motivation".Educational Psychology Review 13 (2001): 2)

There are many supporting theories of motivation such as

Herzbergs Hygiene Theory,McClellands Need Theory, Vrooms
Expectancy theory , Hackman and his colleagues Job Design
model. (Ramlal S. A review of Employee Motivation and their
Implications for Employee Retention within Organizations, J. of
Am Acad of Bus., 5(1/2),52-63(2004) )

A motive is what prompts the person to act in a certain way or at

least develop an inclination for specific behavior. (Pardee, R. L.
(1990). Motivation Theories of Maslow, Herzberg, McGregor &
McClelland. A Literature Review of Selected Theories Dealing with
Job Satisfaction and Motivation).
Motivation is the first step that can produce a specific behavior of
the employee that is related to commitment.

Herzbergs Hygiene Theory:

The two-factor theory (also known as Herzberg's motivationhygiene theory and dual-factor theory) states that there are
certain factors in the workplace that cause job satisfaction, while
a separate set of factors causes dissatisfaction. It was developed
by psychologist Frederick Herzberg, who theorized that job
satisfaction and job dissatisfaction act independently of each
other. ( Herzberg, Frederick; Mausner, Bernard; Snyderman, Barbara B. (1959). The
Motivation to Work (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley.) This system highly motivated
people to give their best output.

Londons career motivation theory:

The concept of career motivation initially presented by London
(1983) integrates individual differences into three domains: career
resilience, career insight, and career identity. This serves as an
organizing framework in which to understand and enhance the
effects of situational conditions on career decisions and behavior.
(London, M. (1983). Toward a theory of career motivation.
Academy of Management Review, 8, 620-630). It examined the
effect of individual ,situational and extra work variables on career
commitment. Work environment factors can sway career
motivation such as staffing policies and procedures, leadership
style, job design, group cohesiveness, career development

programs and the compensation system. Goulet L.R and Singh P.,
Career Commitment: A re examination and extension, J. of
Vocat. Behav., 61, 73-91 (2002) )

Maslows theory of motivation:

Maslow's hierarchy of needs, put simply, means that everyone
has certain needs throughout their life and these, placed in the
ascending order are Physiological, Safety, Social, Esteem, Self
actualization. Maslow's theory suggests that the most basic level
of needs must be met before the individual will strongly desire (or
focus motivation upon) the secondary or higher level needs.
Maslow also coined the term "metamotivation" to describe the
motivation of people who go beyond the scope of the basic needs
and strive for constant betterment. (Goble, F. (1970). The third
force: The psychology of Abraham Maslow.Richmond, CA: Maurice
Bassett Publishing. pp. 62.). Probably globalization and the
competitiveness nowadays push employees to develop in their
career fields,might not only improve their performance, but their
attatchment to the organization and probably in the future
change from a very individual motivator to a more contributory
logic towards the organization, since they would already satisfy
their need of self achievement, esteem,physiological safety and
other maslows suggested needs (Andrea M., Riveros M. and Shir T.
T., Career Commitment and Organizational Commitment in forProfit and non-Profit Sectors, Int. J. Emerg. Sci.,1(3), 324-340
(2011) )

Organization Commitment theory:

Meyer and Allens concept of organization commitment says that
there are three general themes of commitment:
Affection,Continuance,Normative. This can be seen in figure 2 and

when these coupled together produce a higher positive behavior

of employees (Allen N. and Meyer J. P., The measurement and
antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment
to the organization, J. of Occup. Psych., 63(1), 1-18(1990) )

Affective attachment to the organization:

Previous research on organizational commitment has typically not
focused on the underlying dimensions of psychological
attachment to the organization. Although the term commitment is
broadly used to refer to antecedents and consequences, as well
as the process of becoming attached and the state of attachment
itself, it is the psychological attachment that seems to be the
construct of common interest. Employee with strong affective
commitment will continue working with the organization even in
case of adverse situations too. Affection could be the result of
personal bonds with colleagues/superiors, the overall structure of
the organization, his work experience etc.

Continuance attachment to the organization:

When continuance commitment is not completely driven by affective commitment, it usually
boils down to the costs that an employee associates with leaving the organization.
Continuance commitment is also driven to a great extent by organizational culture,threat of
wasting time and effort to acquire nontransferable skills
and when an employee finds an organization to be positive and supportive, he/she will have a
higher degree of continuance commitment. Important organizational factors like employee
loyalty and employee retention are components of continuance commitment ( Frederick J. Slack,
John N. Orife, and Fred P. Anderson, "Effects of Commitment to Corporate Vision on Employee Satisfaction with
Their Organization: An Empirical Study in the United States," International Journal of Management 27, no. 3 (2010))

Normative attachment to the organization:

Normative commitment builds upon duties and values, and the degree to which an employee
stays in an organization out of a sense of obligation. There are times in small companies, when
payments are delayed, and the employees have to suffer pay cuts or deferred pay, but they stay
on, because they do not want to leave an employer during bad times. Normative commitment
comes from a sense of moral duty and the value system of an individual. It can be a result of
affective commitment, or an outcome of socialization within the workplace and commitment to
co-workers.
Normative commitment is higher in organizations that value loyalty and systematically
communicate the fact to employees with rewards, incentives and other strategies. Normative
commitment in employees is also high where employees regularly see visible examples of the
employer being committed to employee well-being.
An employee with greater organizational commitment has a greater chance of contributing to
organizational success and will also experience higher levels of job satisfaction. High levels of
job satisfaction, in turn, reduces employee turnover and increases the organizations ability to
recruit and retain talent (Frederick J. Slack, John N. Orife, and Fred P. Anderson, "Effects of Commitment to
Corporate Vision on Employee Satisfaction with Their Organization: An Empirical Study in the United
States," International Journal of Management 27, no. 3 (2010) )

Reinforcement theory:
We know that according to this theory, behavior is a function of
consequences,that behaviours followed by positive consequences
will occur more frequently and those followed by negative
consequences will occur less frequently. Linking this theory to
career commitment, we can say that proper pay scales and
monetary incentives will be a reinforcing factor of employees
performance. Managers cannot ignore this factor if they got to be
successful in getting the most of their subordinates.

CONCEPTUAL MODEL:

As we discussed above that employee behavior depends on the

career commitment as well, so with the conceptual framework
career commitment is independent variable it could be any
organizations policies, rules, and formal strategies or might be an
informal way of handling employees performance. But in this
relation ship there is a moderator involve that is job satisavtion
whos high or low affection will decide the output level of
employee in an organization as shown in figure 3.

CONCLUSION:
We have come across many variables, moderators, attributes and
characteristics as force factors which are contributing to the
process of organizational growth and benefits. This along with the
various theories and previous research works that we discussed
here in this literature prove that there exists a strong positive
correlation between career commitment and employee
performance. As career committed workers are much more mobile
than organisationally committed workers due to a greater focus
on internal drivers to satisfaction rather than organisationally
determined drivers, poor management of a supportive work
environment in accordance with these antecedents may lead to
the loss of these valuable members to the next job in their career
ascension. It is therefore important for management practitioners
to understand the value and ubiquity of career commitment, and
to know how to stimulate and retain career committed workers.